Global Advances in Electronic/Chip Packaging (Technical Insights)

The research service discusses global trends in electronic/chip packaging. It discusses in detail, development and adoption trends of advanced packaging technologies like System-in-Package (SiP) and 3D packaging. It further highlights the new developments in this sector.

Published: 31 Dec 2007

Packaging Technology Emerging as a Critical Process in Chip Manufacturing

In the past, electronic package was considered to be a passive part of the microelectronics component, which encloses the IC circuitry. Today, however, the packaging industry has significantly advanced, thanks to the ongoing technological breakthroughs and fierce market demands. Packaging is now considered as a critical process step in the chip manufacturing flow and with a lot of packaging technology advances; the industry is continuously striving to map performance, application, and cost demands in an optimum way to better serve the needs of the end users.

While system on chip (SoC) and system in package (SiP) are two very important domains in the packaging industry, three-dimensional (3D) packaging, which has already begun to impact a few systems, is an emerging technology in the electronics industry. The adoption of 3D integration is highly influenced by advances in wafer technologies, as preliminary advances in packaging technology have consistently focused on taking the package a step closer to the wafer. "Interconnect Technologies is an important technology domain which will influence the adoption of 3D technologies at large," notes the analyst of this research service. "Through silicon via (TSV) is a key technology, which has gained the industrial focus in this domain."

Tessera Achieves Breakthrough in Interconnect Technology

With miniaturization and costs being one of the primary drivers for packaging advances, the industry is now focusing on resolving interconnect and signal integrity issues. Contributing to the efforts in this direction, Tessera has come out with its µPILR solution, an innovative, breakthrough interconnect technology designed to overcome the technical limitations of the current interconnect technologies. The platform has been developed for a wide range of applications that include interconnection of semiconductor die to package substrates, semiconductor package to printed circuit board (PCB) and layers within substrates of PCB, and within two PCBs. Interconnect technologies are consistently striving to attain higher levels of reliability with finer pitches and lower profiles.

Among the other notable advances, Banpil Photonics Inc., USA, has developed and patented a platform electrical (metallic) interconnect technology, which enables high-speed signal transmissions of 10 Gbps to as much as 40 Gbps across copper interconnects on FR4 PCBs and backplanes, as well as on flexible printed circuits (FPCs). "Banpil’s solution is unique in that it not only achieves high-speed, but also reduces power consumption by as much as 90 percent compared to traditional solutions," says the analyst. "In addition, its ability to use mature and standard materials such as FR4 will enable manufacturers to continue using FR4 for several more generations of systems."